After a troubled 14 years of marriage, and a barrage of increasingly damaging headlines, Charles and Diana divorced.

This was also the year mad cow disease appeared in the news as it was announced that BSE was “the most likely explanation at present” for 10 cases of the condition CJD in people aged under 42.

And there was also the darkest of days in Dunblane, near Stirling in Scotland, when gunman Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 children and a teacher after walking into the town’s primary school.

Technology was also advancing at a pace – 20 years ago saw the first DVDs go on sale in Japan; the buying/selling website eBay was launched; and it was estimated over 10 million people (a tiny figure by today’s standards) around the world had access to the internet.

Meanwhile, in July of this year, Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be cloned.

In the world of entertainment, Blur, Mariah Carey and Alanis Morissette were among the big names in the pop world, although it was a close-run thing between Oasis and the Spice Girls as to who was the biggest.

At the movies, big draws included Independence Day; Star Trek: First Contact; and Mission: Impossible.

But the times were a’changing in a year when the average house price in the UK was £69,000, and a gallon of petrol cost £2.70.

Come 5.50pm on October 20, 1996, Newcastle United sat top of the Premier League. What could possibly go wrong?

Sadly, King Kev would unexpectedly quit the club in February - and the Magpies would go on to finish second in the league.

And that’s the way we were 20 years ago...

1. 1996: You might have had a curry at the Rupali in Newcastle's Bigg Market

2. 1996: Dolly the sheep became the first cloned mammal

3. 1996: The first DVDs went on sale

4. 1996: The first Independence Day movie was released

5. 1996: Sixteen schoolchildren and their teacher were shot dead in Dunblane, Scotland

6. 1996: You could buy a pint of beer for £1.60

7. 1996: This is how the Forum Shopping Centre, Wallsend, was 20 years ago